Artnapping. Hazel Edwards

sometimes the family sell the other one if they’re really desperate for money. I wonder who this photo belongs to? They must have the original vase.’ She seemed unusually excited.

      The Japanese couple were not impressed by Tess’s knowledge of Ming vases. They just wanted the wedding photos of themselves.

      Christopher asked, ‘Where did you learn all that?’

      Tess shrugged. ‘It was necessary for my job.’

      ‘Which job?’ asked Amy. For once Tess didn’t answer. She just looked very closely at the pattern on the vase in the photo. The long ceramic beads around her neck fell across the photo.

      Was something hidden inside the waist-length beads, Christopher wondered.

      Meanwhile, the honeymoon couples weren’t happy. And their tour director was very, very upset.

      Amy peered at her neighbour’s photos. As far as Amy could see some photos were of a board game of some sort. Up close. Others were of people dressed in old fashioned costumes. One was an old man standing in front of a country town sign, holding a sword. Amy realised that someone had made a mistake. She looked at the real honeymoon couple sitting side by side in their just-bought jeans,AUSTRALIA T shirts and Doc Martens. No way were they the people in the photos.

      Nobody could look THAT different in cloaks, big dresses and a suit of armour! In the photo, there was even a big, old sword. It looked like a photo of a dress-up party. Just then a mist started to form in the cabin. It started near the crew’s serving area and started to spread, like a fog.

      ‘Look!’ Christopher didn’t need to point. Amy could feel it. The cloud hovered above the seats. Christopher coughed. ‘What is it?’ Other passengers cried out as the cloud reached them.

      Amy wasn’t keen on the growing cloud either. Was it a real cloud? Had something gone wrong with the plane? Was there a hole somewhere? Was it letting real cloud into the aircraft? Was the plane going to crash? ‘Attention please. This is Captain Richards speaking. Due the technical difficulties we will be returning to Sydney. We will resume our flight to Tokyo as soon as possible. Fasten your seat belts please.’

      Amy hoped that they didn’t crash ON Sydney!